


Box and Whiskers

by gnomesagetion



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, No International Rescue AU, Short Story, TAG Team Secret Santa 2017, there's a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:53:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13136679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnomesagetion/pseuds/gnomesagetion
Summary: In which International Rescue never became a thing so Virgil has a job and a cat called Patches.





	Box and Whiskers

Virgil was the only Tracy son to work for his dad after college. The media lapped it up. It wasn’t what anyone expected – everyone thought that all five would eventually end up at Tracy Industries. But Scott seemed certain that when he felt his time at the Air Force was over, he’d become a stay at home dad. John expressed that he had no interest in working for his father. Gordon worked near the sea and out right refused living in a landlocked area. Alan... Alan was barely in the country. With his brothers all over the place, Virgil was lonely. So, when he was visiting one of his old friends from Kansas and they offered him a young kitten, Virgil decided to take it home. It was a small white kitten with black spots on its back and forehead. It was the most adorable thing Virgil had ever saw. He unoriginally called it Patches.

Patches was a silly little kitten. When Virgil first brought him home, Patches would often get between the wall and Virgil’s fridge to sleep. Then Patches grew a little and could no longer fit in the gap, so the kitten decided that the next best place to sleep was on Virgil’s feet. Virgil didn’t mind his kitten sleeping there but there was the odd occasion that Virgil would move in the night and Patches would start meowing at the top of his lungs. While Patches still slept on Virgil’s feet, during the day, the cat would cat nap on Virgil’s pile of old sketchbooks. Another odd thing Patches did was avoid Jeff Tracy whenever he came to visit. Virgil could never figure out why Patches did that; the young cat would only hide under Virgil’s bed when someone new visited and had warmed up to Virgil’s brothers quite quickly. Maybe the cat didn’t like CEOs. 

It was nice to have company. Patches had quickly become Virgil’s favourite family member. And it seemed his brothers felt the same way; the latest Tracy family Christmas card had the five brothers sitting in front of Virgil’s Christmas tree with Patches on Virgil’s lap. But the one thing Virgil did not like about having Patches was Patches’ tendency to chew on Virgil’s headphones. In the first year that Virgil had Patches he’d spent a few hundred dollars buying replacement headphones. Now an adult cat, Patches had slowed down the chewing of headphones but occasionally, Virgil would still come home from the shop to find Patches chewing on his headphones to unusable scrap because he’d forgotten to move them out of the cat’s reach. Virgil had just recently caught Patches in the act but thankfully it was right before Christmas, so he could always ask one of his brothers for new ones. 

As it neared Christmas, Virgil sat on the couch drawing in his current sketchbook as Patches napped beside him. The cat opened his eyes and starred Virgil before turning to the lit-up Christmas Tree. Virgil did not notice the cat eyeing the tree up. Patches stretched and stood on his paws. He gracefully leaped off the couch and headed towards the tree. Hearing a rustling sound over his music, Virgil looked up and saw his cat destroying tinsel.  
“Patches!”


End file.
